Privacy

Your privacy

At Viney Hearing Care (VHC) we are committed to the highest privacy standards. However you choose to interact with us, we will only collect data that is necessary for us to deliver the best possible service and ensure you are reminded about appointments or anything else relevant to your ongoing care. This policy provides detailed information on when and why we collect your personal information, how we use it and the very limited conditions under which we may disclose it to others.

Collection of your Personal Information

In addition to your basic contact information (name, date of birth, telephone numbers and your addresses) we will collect other relevant details including current and past health and medication information, your examination results, payment details and lifestyle information. We may also store associated information received from other health care professionals as part of your ongoing care.

How we use this information

The information we collect about you is used to ensure we provide you with the best and most appropriate products and services. In addition to your ongoing hearing care, we will remind you when appointments are due and suggest relevant products or services that we believe would be of interest. We use your contact information to respond to queries from you as agreed. We may occasionally contact you to ask for your feedback on services we have provided and to offer the opportunity to trial new products.

Our policy on storage, processing and retention of your information

To provision and manage our services, your data is stored and processed by our licenced Noah Software. Any third-party company is only permitted to process your data for the specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
We retain your information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide our products and services and to maintain records to satisfy tax and other legal requirements.

How and when we may share your Personal Information

Where necessary we may disclose your information to health care professionals including the NHS. We may also pass information to external agencies and organisations, including the police, for the prevention and detection of fraud and criminal activity. Should any claim be made, we may pass your personal information to our insurers and if our business is wholly or partially transferred to a third party, your personal information may be one of the transferred assets.

Your rights with respect to the Personal Information we hold

You are entitled to access the personal information that we hold on you; any such request should be made using our contact details below. If any data we hold is inaccurate, this will be corrected promptly on request. In certain circumstances you can request that we erase your data which we will do where this would not prevent us meeting our legal and regulatory obligations.

Updating your communication preferences

You may ask that we do not send you communications using any of the contact details we hold on our records, this may include your email, SMS, telephone and postal information. You may also request we restrict our communications to clinically necessary messages. Your personal preferences can be changed at any time by using the link at the end of every email and SMS message we send or by using our contact details below.

VHC will always endeavour to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998.

The principles are that:

Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully

Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes

Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed

Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date

Personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary

Personal data shall be processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects under this Act

Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data

Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data

Your personal data will be held and processed in accordance with the requirements and obligations of the Data Protection Act 1998. VHC does not provide information to third parties for marketing purposes.

If you would like to see your records, please give us a ring on 01792 204886 and we shall make an appointment to go through your details with you.

Personal information collected via online forms

Your privacy is of the highest importance to us and we promise never to release your personal details for marketing purposes to any company.

By completing the online form you consent to VHC or any third party on its behalf, securely processing and storing personal data both manually and by electronic means.

By completing an online enquiry or booking form and selecting yes to ‘News Letter’ option you are signing up to receive information, special offers and promotions from VHC Ltd by mail, phone/mobile or email. If you do not wish to receive such information, please get in contact on 01792 204 886 or please write to Viney Hearing Care, 104 Gower Road, Sketty, Swansea SA2 9BZ. Your details will not be passed on to any third parties.

If you are concerned about providing any information online, then please get in touch and we will arrange an alternative for you.

Cookies

The Law

26th May 2011 saw alterations made to Regulation 6 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation 2003 (PECR) which focussed on electronic privacy and in particular the use of website cookies. This resulted in a new EU and UK law being passed. The following is the new addition to Regulation 6:

A person shall not store or gain access to information stored in the terminal equipment of a subscriber or user unless the requirements of paragraph [2] are met.

The requirements are that the subscriber or user of that terminal equipment:

Is provided with clear and comprehensive information about the purposes of the storage of, or access to, that information; and

Has given his or her consent.

In plain English, the law states those people whose websites set cookies must:

Tell users what the cookies are.

Explain what the cookies are doing.

Obtain the user’s consent to store most (all cookies except one deemed ‘strictly necessary’ require the user’s permission to be used) cookies on their device.

Cookies

A cookie is a small text file that is put on a user’s computer when they visit and/or do things on a website. Cookies have been around for years and carry data and not code, so are unable to transmit anything dangerous. The main job of a cookie is to remember things – ranging from your favourite font size or what marketing material you are likely to browse, both with different levels of intrusiveness.

Types of Cookies

There are four types of cookies, session, persistent, first-party and third party.

Session cookies

Only remain active whilst visiting the website. Stores the fact that you have logged on to the website. Usually deleted by the web browser and deemed unobtrusive.

Persistent cookies

Can last for years and are not deleted by the web browser. Are used by Google’s new remarketing service and deemed more intrusive than session cookies as this data is used by third-parties.

First-party cookies

Cookies set up by the visiting website. The cookie can only read pages that it was designated to by the creator. Deemed unobtrusive, yet depends on the scale of the website.

Third-party cookies

Considered more obtrusive. Website ‘A’ is visited by user ‘Bob’. Website ‘B’ has created a cookie to read from ‘A’. The creator of the cookie is untraceable from both websites. The cookie can then be used for marketing and building up a browser history of Bob across all the websites he visits that have this cookie attached to them.

Our Website

This website uses the following cookies on each page:

Session cookies

To enhance your browsing quality by allowing us to know what pages you visit on this website and others.

Google Analytics

We use this information to compile reports on website usage, visitor sources and analyse browser versions.

This website contains a banner on the home page asking you to allow the cookies, in compliance with the new law.

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Money back guarantee – for your complete peace of mind

If, after your second follow up appointment you are not totally satisfied with your new hearing aids, then you can return them to us and we will give you a full refund. It is very rarely necessary for patients to return hearing aids to us. but it’s this kind of commitment to service that makes Viney Hearing Care your best choice for hearing aids and hearing consultation.